Saga of the Endless Path
by Dead Witch Risen
Summary: Naruto has lived an interesting life. After retiring from his own adventures, family trouble brings him back into action. Now that his great-granddaughter is reaching out for help, along with the help of some friends of his, he brings her to safety, his home, and reveals a path for adventure. Will she walk it? Or will she find her own? Rated M to be safe, still don't know.
1. Chapter 1

Well... Here we are.

Hi, I'm the writer formerly known as Dead Witch. Used to do Naruto stuff. Was homeless for a while, my old e-mail got hacked, so I had troubles there, lost control of the account before I realized what was happening, and went through some serious shit for a while now.

I began writing again more or less for the therapeutic aspect of it. Imagining a story, no matter how ridiculous, silly, or preposterous, is a good distraction when you're at a low point. But getting down and _writing _it? That takes focus, concentration, and time. Once you begin writing, you don't stop until you _have _something. You use your computers, your paper pads, ink, and fingers, to _create _worlds that didn't exist before you imagined them into reality. Every possible "what if?" is out there, and for those of you who might doubt your ability to create, I say "Who gives a shit?" Writing is like any craft, nobody STARTS off being good. Hell, most of us start off as stodgy, emo world-haters in middle school creating overpowered OP god mode Sues like they're going out of style. I certainly did. I don't regret it at all. On my old account, I wrote 400,000 words of a fic called "Rising Star" before I realized how crap it was.

But you wanna know my REAL mistake? What the biggest blunder I made at the tail end of Rising Star? _I fucking gave up on it. _I hit a point where I not only got tired of the story, but I let myself think that if this was the limits of my ability, then what was the point? What difference would it make to keep trying?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am hear to tell you that if you give up writing something, if you have an _idea _in your head and you never even try to make a story of it, the only one disappointed in you is _you._

Trust me here- I suck. One day I'm gonna read these words again and look at this first chapter again and be _so _embarrassed. I'll wonder what the hell I was thinking right now.

But right now is right now and, hey? Future me? Shut it. It took a lot of guts to show people out there how much I suck right now. But I'll get better. And I'll see you later.

Never give up on yourself, ever. You are awesome, and you just gotta convicnce YOURSELF of that.

Dattebayo, bitches.

* * *

**_Chapter 1: The Endless Path takes you Home_**

* * *

_The engine roared pitifully as it barreled down the highway somewhere in the mid-western United States. The old Ford sedan was outmatched in this clash of man vs nature, twin tornadoes trailing behind it preternaturally fast, as if following crumbs left behind the vehicle, hell-bent on the destruction of both the machine and the woman in questionable control of its direction. The skies, which had so recently been a bright cobalt blue of autumn beauty, were now a pea soup green, a sickly visceral representation of wrath and rage._

_I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die, _the woman chanted to herself as she drove. Tears stained her pale blue eyes, and her dirty blond hair kept getting in them as she focused on maintaining speed. Twin twisters the likes of which she had never seen before- on account of hailing from New York City, at that- followed just behind her, close enough that her entire rear view mirrors were reflecting nothing but the cones of death. Winds howled beyond the car's exterior, carrying debris, chunks of roadway, twisted remnants of other vehicles, and so much more with them. They had seemingly come out of nowhere as she was making her cross-country drive to the west coast.

She didn't know how to handle situations like this.

She had no idea how to survive the wrath of God like this.

She didn't know if she _should. _

The needle on her speedometer topped out at 110 MPH, but her poor beast was barely able to push sixty. Some half-forgotten trivia she'd picked up said that twisters almost never got past seventy, she should be able to outrun it, _Oh please God let me run it out I don't want to die here I want to live oh please oh shit oh shit, please! Help! _

The smell of chemicals and soil permeated through the cabin. The old Taurus, the kind that had appeared in those old Robocop movies, a relic of bygone eras of film and Hollywood, wasn't built for these conditions. It... it wouldn't save her.

_NO! _

"_I WILL NOT FUCKING DIE HERE!" _she shouted aloud. "_Fuck that! _I'm gonna die on a shrimping boat before a goddamed tornado gets me!" She unlatched her right hand from the wheel to pound on the console. "Come on, baby! Come on! Let's go! You and me, three thousand miles, we gotta finish this!"

The road behind her was all but torn to shreds. God help whoever was in its path behind her. God help those to come.

An eye flicked down to the dashboard. The fuel gauge was getting dangerously low, and this puppy had never been very nice to the MPG. It was a race against time. Who would win? The tornadoes behind, or the precious drops of fuel that were all that was standing between her and a one-way ticket to the sky?

_Come on... come on... just a little bit longer... come on! Go! Gogogogogogo! _

But the funnel clouds kept coming closer and closer until the inevitable was upon her. She struggled to maintain control of the car, but the literal forces of nature behind her would not allow that. She felt the world shift under her as the rear end of the car began to lose traction. The wind, hundreds of miles an hour strong, was too much for the little engine that couldn't. She threw the wheel in a desperate attempt to straighten out (_turn into the skid and maintain direction _a memory of driver's ed said to her) but when the rear axal began to lift off of the ground... when the car began to flip to the side... as the dust behind her transformed into the dust _around _her...

_Oh. Oh, no._

With seemingly no effort at all, the vehicle became airborne. The colossal winds of the closer twister lifted the car, but slowly at first, like a cheap carnival ride, but faster and faster as she rose above the ground and somehow was pulled into the orbit of the storm. And just like that, there was no more control. Tumbling on three axis as she was pulled out of the direct influence of gravity, seat belt strapped tightly to her chest so hard that she could barely breath with the g-forces, she noticed vaguely that she had somehow been _tossed _from one tornado to another.

_Great, _she thought vaguely to herself as the blood rushed to her head and her vision began reddening. _World's biggest game of hot potato. _

_This is madness._

… _Madness. No. It couldn't be. _

Many years beforehand, when she was very young, her grandmother had told her something about madness... something... what was it... come on, _come on, Lily, _**come on, come on... **She couldn't scream. There were no sounds. The wind was... wind. It was _wind. _

"_Listen to the wind, and whisper back. Find the words between the madness, and call out to it."_

"_But what should I say?"_

"_You just ask for help, dearie. I can tell you how if you wish... it isn't hard to ask for help if you know how. My father taught me how to before he left on his next great adventure. There's this little poem..."_

She need to breathe. Lily took her hands off of the useless steering wheel and wriggled just enough that she could move the seat belt from her chest. If this didn't work, she'd be dead anyway. Jamming her feet against the console, she somehow managed to push her seat back to give her enough slack that she could get a gasp of air. She had heard the stories about her great grandfather. Her own mother had told her that they were simply stories, but-

but those old stories were her only chance at survival.

The storm howled more loudly than ever before, but she didn't care. Enraged, frightened, _pissed off beyond measure, _she shouted out at the void. "**NOW THIS IS THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE!**"

A mighty gust of wind overturned the vehicle, and now she was flying backwards and upside down. "**AS OLD AND AS TRUE AS THE SKY! AND THE WOLF THAT SHALL-**" Some violent breeze spun the car over again and around like a top. "**KEEP IT MAY PROSPER, BUT THE WOLF THAT SHOULD BREAK IT MUST DIE!**"

Debris crashed through the back left window, scattering shards of broken safety glass in the cabin of the old car. She felt lances of pain shoot into her cheek, her arm, and blood spattered wildly. For the briefest of instances, as if in slow motion, she noticed a few drops fly, from her perspective, out, then up, then left into the driver's window. Cabin pressure negated in its entirety, dust and detritus peppered her exposed skin and drowned her own voice out in an unrelenting howl.

_Listen to the wind, and whisper back. Find the words between the madness, and call out to it._

_A long, jagged strip of some kind of metal impaled the windshield. It drove into the car with enough thrust to embed itself into her seat and straight into the back floorboard. It had threaded the scant space between her arm and torso; eyeing the jagged spike, if she was to be smashed into it, she knew it would be the end of her. _

_She'd been taught two very important things about fear by her mother- first, to never to give in to it, never to let it consume you, but to let it guide your actions. Fear is a survival mechanism, nothing more and nothing less. Down the path of fear is darkness and madness. _

_Secondly, though... sometimes, fear is the appropriate response. _

_Some of the glass must have nicked something important in her neck. She looked down and her once-light yellow tank top was a canvas of life's-blood red. Cold began to creep up to her, from her fingertips and toes all the way up her arms. _

_Listen to the wind, and whisper back. Find the words between the madness, and call out to it._

She felt the radical shift in direction as, once again, she was flung from one monster twister to another. She was fading, and she knew it, and she was dying, and she knew it. But it wouldn't happen without her fighting until the bitter end. Lily inhaled one large, dirt-saturated breath, and in one go finished the verse. "**AS THE CREEPER THAT GIRDLES THE TREETRUNK THE LAW RUNNETH FORWARD AND BACK FOR THE STRENGTH OF THE PACK IS THE WOLF AND THE STRENTH OF THE WOLF IS THE PACK!**" Every ounce of will she had remaining had been shed in that defiant tribute.

There were no miracles. Miracles are an act of a capricious god, one who might occasionally answer a prayer.

No, there were no miracles.

But the Pack? The Pack heard the call.

* * *

At that moment- relatively speaking- seven individuals were alerted to a cry for help. Those words, those lines written by a man long dead, rang throughout the greater Outer Multiverse to reach the ears of those most needed. One by one, they turned to better hear the plea.

The Ritual Witch King, he who would make truth of all lie.

The Fearsome Mother, she who had once been a merciless warrior, but who now cared for those who would ask for her steady hands and comforting eyes.

The Immortal Gladiator, chosen by fate to guide those who would follow him into darkness and come out the other side with a blooded smile, to whom the word "impossible" was merely a polite suggestion.

The Nephilim Chain, an angel born of science and God.

The WorldWalker, the woman that knew no bounds.

The Young Death, he whose reach spans all sinners against his name and whose domain is the Soul.

And finally, the one to whom the cry was cast at in the first place...

* * *

There was a low boom in the sky. Then another. Rhythmic concussions, spaced a few seconds apart, popped around her. Some were distant, and some were so close she wondered why they hadn't torn her apart.

And then there was... not silence. But just like that, the funnel clouds were just _gone. _The supercells above had all but vanished. In the space of seconds, the clouds above had begun to break apart, the bright blue sky allowing sun to shine on down in columns of burning light.

A lurch stopped the old Taurus from falling more than three or four feet after it left the influence of the dual twisters, shocking Lily to the core. She felt the g-forces on her yank her into the door, her shoulder slamming so sharply that she felt, more than heard, her upper arm crack almost in half. The side of her head cracked against the glass, splintering it and sending shards of death around the cabin... but not a one of the splinters pierced her skin.

Time itself stopped in that crystalline moment. While the world around her flowed on, a bubble of eternity surrounded her. She could not move. She could not breathe. She could not speak.

But she could _see. _She could see a man before her, one that had existed only in her family's memory for so very long that he had become more of a myth than a reality. That bright yellow hair, shaggy and short. Those piercing blue eyes, so very like her own. Three dark marks on each cheek, looking like solid black bars.

Skin that radiated a bright, blazing golden light.

She faded into unconsciousness, but with her last waking thought, she understood who he was. He was the prayer that had been answered.

The Pack had heard her call.

_Grandfather... _she silently thought as she went dark. _I knew... you... would..._

* * *

There was a faint antiseptic scent in the air. That was the first thing that Lily noticed when she awoke from her hazy slumber. Eyes, heavy with fatigue, cracked open at last. She was too tired to move very much. The lights, from some indistinct source beyond her reach, were turned down low. Far, far off in the distance, there was the sound of some kind of water crashing about- a waterfall? Waves?

No sound came from the room itself. The air was comfortably cool, and the sheets over her body kept Lily from the chill.

_Am I in a hospital somewhere? _she thought. _Did... did all of that really happen? Where am I?_ She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, the dried crust flaking off. She sat up in her bed to look around the room.

It was a fairly small room, all told. To the left of her hospital bed was a complicated-looking medical display, with what she assumed were readings coming from her. Heartbeat, brain activity, blood pressure... all of her vitals were on screen. The sensors that were picking up the signals must have been doing so remotely, because she couldn't feel any kind of electrode or device anywhere on her body. Just beyond the display was a shelf with folded clothing, toiletries, towels, and such. A wooden door was in the middle of the wall downward from the foot of her bed.

She looked to her right. By all rights, she should have been startled, but an almost unnatural calm had come over her. In a plush chair sat the last thing that she had seen before blacking out. The man with yellow hair and blue eyes, the impossible hero that had somehow been there for her, rested, slumped over with his chin being supported by his hand on the chair's armrest.

Lily blinked slowly at that, uncaring that she was only dressed in a hospital gown. _It's him. It's really, really him. _He was close by, perhaps two feet away, easily within arm's reach. He was wearing simple blue jeans and a tank-top, with a delicate-looking necklace with some kind of crystals hanging from it. On the table beside him were at least a half-dozen cups of instant raman noodles, presumably emptied of contents.

He wasn't an especially large man, but his body was covered by muscles that looked as if they belonged to a fighter. Faint scars could be seen on his right arm around the elbow, light patches against his evenly-tanned skin.

He stirred himself to life when Lily sat up, as if he was silently alerted. He rubbed his own eyes, and quickly sat at attention. "Hey, you're awake! Thank goodness, you've been out for a while. You took a pretty good banging before we could get to you. You feeling okay?" He sat forward in his seat, looking Lily in the eyes. He had a warm smile, full of kindness and compassion. There was no guile in him. This was a man that was used to being trusted, and one that was worthy of it.

Lily stared at him for a solid moment, simply taking him in. "You're real," she finally said after an uncomfortable silence. "You're actually real. Not dead. I mean, you're real, but you're _real._" She rapidly blinked, confused at her own choice of words. "Did that make any sense? Grandfather?"

If Uzumaki Naruto had any internal reaction to the title, he hid it well. "It does," he said. "I'm real. I'm alive. And so are you." He touched her shoulder, and she could feel the warmth and strength transmitting between them.

No- no, wait. It wasn't any kind of metaphorical reassuring contact, but a genuine _energy _flowing through his fingertips. Lily gasped as a shock of heat entered her core. Any remaining aches that she felt were dissipated; it was as if the man's very vitality was flowing through her, flooding her with fire and light, rocking the world around her, the way she saw _reality itself. _

"Oh, shit!" she said as she jerked away with a gasp. "What was that?!"

Naruto frowned and snatched his hand away. "Sorry!" he said, "I didn't think that through too well. I- listen, there's a lot to explain right now, and I know that you have a lot of questions to ask me. I'll answer what I can, I promise you, but we should wait for your doctor to check you out before we dive into everything."

Lily blinked. "Wait, doctor?"

Naruto let a small smile through. "Yeah," he said. "One of the best I ever met was the one that took care of you after the accident. Got you patched up in no time flat. She'll be here soon, those machines sent her an alert once you woke up."

"Who- No, hold on, _where _are we? This doesn't look like Kansas to me, Gramps."

Naruto winced at that name. "Oh, why you hurt me so?" he joked. "'Grandfather' I can take, but 'Gramps' makes me sound old and stodgy."

Still reeling from the unprecedented charge that had been pushed into her, Lily shook her head. "Old Man?" she suggested. "Grandad?"

"Let's stick with Grandad for now," he said wryly. "We'll figure it all out later. We've got time."

It was the way that he said the last few words that made it sound like he was more certain of that fact than his very own name. _Who is this guy?_ Lily thought.

Naruto clapped his hands and put on a smile. "Hey, anyway, are you hungry?" He nodded to the other side of the hospital room at the kitchenette containing a small portable hot eye, microwave, and sink.

As if on cue, Lily's belly rumbled. The almighty Uzumaki clan appetite, even after all these years, was a powerful force. "No," she deadpanned.

The old man laughed as he stood. "Sorry if I don't have much in here that you might like, there aren't visitors to this facility very often. I rotate the stock every few years, but we should have something you can stomach." He busied himself at the cupboard, pulling out various Styrofoam containers. "Uh... Oh. I forgot to restock the soups." Under his breath, he muttered "_Damn you, ShadowBoy, you knew mushroom was my favorite, I told you to replace them."_ He turned back toward Lily with a forced smile. "Uh... Say, Lily?"

"Yes?" she answered.

"How do you feel about instant raman?

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, a somewhat bemused woman in white walked into the clinic to the sounds of heated argument.

This would not be the first time that she had interrupted a discussion of the type with her dear friend perpetuating his ideals like this.

_"SHRIMP?" _a shout from the other side of the door came bellowing out before she could open it. "No granddaughter of mine will tell me to my face that _shrimp _is the best flavor of instant raman! I will not stand for this!"

"Don't you dare shame me!" Lily shot back. "Shrimp raman is the height of savory and sweet! Chicken flavor is cloying, mushroom too gamey, and beef- it's _generic. Everybody _likes beef. It's _standard _and _boring._"

_... Perhaps I should come back later, _Retsu Unohana thought to herself. _Only madness lies beyond this door. Madness and chaos incarnate. _

"Generic? Did you just say- Oy! 'Hana!" Naruto called out.

Sighing and resigning herself to her duties, Unohana opened the door. _Of course, running away wouldn't help... _"Uzumaki," she said as she entered, "I warned you about getting her too excited before I could give her a proper checkup when she awoke. Will you-" She then noticed the empty noodle cups around where he had been sitting. Then she noticed the ones in both their hands, cheap wooden chopsticks held at the ready.

Unohana had been a friend of Naruto for a very long time at this point in her life. Both the two had rules, personal rules that, when known, were a sin to violate. In certain matters, she deferred to his judgment. In others, he to hers. Some kind of switch was flipped in her soul just then.

Without changing her expression in the slightest, her mood went from _resigned _to _apocalyptic _one point three times faster than an average human could blink. The very air between them became heavy, as if a miasma of toxic sludge was immersed in her gaze. "Naruto," she said pleasantly, Unohana presented a smile at the blond-haired death-wish machine. "Would you happen to be feeding my patient... _raman_?"

It would not be an overstatement to say that Uzumaki Naruto was one of her favorite people. Over the years, he'd proven himself to be a capable ally and friend. She had been there with him during the Godfather War. She had bled for him, and he for her. But in the world of medicine, within the realm of a hospital, she was _Authority. _

Naruto had the decency to be ashamed. "I, uh, sorry, she was hungry, and-"

"And you gave... her... raman. You first instinct was to give a patient of mine junk food, and then get into an argument about said food. Is that right?"

Naruto held up a finger in protest. "Okay, yeah, you're _technically _correct, which incidentally is the best kind of correct, but-"

**"Leave."**

Naruto looked at his progeny. "Good luck," he said.

"Wait! Hey, hold on, who-" Naruto was gone and out the door faster than you could say "Pork bowl." Lily looked bewildered to be abandoned that quickly with this intimidating presence. "Uh..." She looked at her hands, still filled with warm noodly goodness, and chose the best course of action by putting them down.

"Thank you," Unohana said warmly.

Lily shrunk into herself. Some primordial part of her lizard brain was screaming _DANGER, RUN, BEAST, PREDATOR,_ but she couldn't find the energy to flee after her grandfather. "Sorry," she squeaked.

And just like that, the mood in the room flipped on its head once again. This warm, comforting woman in white, a healer of the body? Who would be afraid of somebody like that? "It is not your fault, young one," she said as she moved over to examine the readings on the monitors beside the bed. "It is the fault of your elders-" A quick glance at the door was all that was needed to express her disapproval. "-for not following the rules that have been laid out."

Lily kept silent as Unohana continued her work. Some hidden signal had the screens shifting. A few seconds here, blood work. Another few on another screen, medical history, blood pressure, genetic anomalies, ovulation cycles, brain waves... a truly dizzying array of information was presented faster than most human eyes could follow. A few minutes of uncomfortable silence passed, and Lily couldn't take it anymore. "I, uh, I'm Lily," she said, attempting to fill the awkward silence.

"I know, dear," Unohana said without taking her eyes from the screens before her. "I read your medical file." Finally satisfied, she turned from the display to Lily with a glowing smile. "My name is Retsu Unohana. Your grandfather is a friend of mine from very long ago, and he asked me to look after your healing process. Incidentally, I was also one of the ones who was able to answer your Call the other day. I am happy to say that you have made a full recovery in the meantime."

"Huh? Call? Wait a second, 'other day'? How long have I been unconscious?"

"Mmm. It has been nearly seventy-two hours since the situation with the weather. I am happy to say that nobody was irreparably hurt, but the local hospitals must have been busy with the patients from the incident."

"_Local _hospitals? Wait a second, where are we then?" It was only just then that Lily realized that the room she was in was very windowless. "Are we even still in _America_?"

"Technically? I suppose you could say that," answered Unohana. But that word, "technically", it hung in the air like a pinata.

And, of course, Lily took a swing at it. What else do you do with a pinata? "What do you mean 'technically'? Where _are _we?"

"That is a question to ask your great-grandfather," Unohana said. "In the meantime, I am giving you a clean bill of health. I do suggest that you don't exert yourself overmuch for the next few days, though. You had a fairly severe concussion, a fractured tibia, and your first, third, and seventh ribs were completely broken. I can heal a broken body fairly quickly, but at a certain point it becomes taxing to the body itself. Done too quickly, and your vital energies can be depleted before the threshold between life and death can be safely crossed. After emergency aid was provided, the next two days were spent rebuilding your musculature structure, resetting and repairing bones and joints, and replenishing your blood supply. Luckily, your grandfather shares your blood type, and we were able to bring you to a full recovery."

Lily's hands instinctively went to her rib cage. "What?!" she shouted. "But- I'm not in a cast! Something like that should have killed me." Several conflicting emotions fought within Lily just then. Confusion, contentment, sheer relief to be alive, and even some anger. "Why am I not dead?"

"'Why am I not dead?' A blunt, but apt question. Simply put, I am a _very _efficient medic," she said. "You might have some inkling of who your great-grandfather is and what he can do. I'm sure your grandmother told you stories about him. Lovely woman. But what he is to, as he puts it, 'Kaboom Power', I am to healing a body. So long as you are not explicitly dead, or your spirit hasn't traveled too far from the mortal coil, I can heal almost anything with the correct procedures."

Lily opened her mouth to speak, but found that she couldn't express the various emotions fighting for dominance. To an outside observer, she looked like a goldfish that had been abruptly and rudely taken out of an aquarium.

Unohana was far too polite to say that aloud, of course. But she could take some humor in her own observations.

Lily looked at her doctor for a few seconds, then gave an unexpected smile. "I still have no idea what's going on here," she said. "But you two saved my life. Thank you. Thank you so much."

Unohana smiled back at the girl and patted her shoulder gently. "You are very welcome, dear. Any time you need something, I will help however I can." A very small smirk twitched at the corner of her lips. "It doesn't hurt that having Uzumaki Naruto in my debt can be a very useful chit to cash on occasion."

Lily snorted at that, then laughed. "Oh, wow. Um." She flopped back on the bed and gazed at the ceiling. "Miss Unohana? Er, Doctor? What should I call you?"

"My friends call me Retsu. I think I shall give that honor to you, if you wish to be friends."

Lily waved her hand vaguely. "Anybody who rescues me from a tornado gets to be my friend," she said. "Um, Retsu? Can I, uh, get dressed?" She glanced over at the folded clothes to the side of the room. "Will those fit?"

"Yes, I believe you are good to move on your own recognizance," Unohana said. "Just try not to over-exert yourself for a few days. You may be healed, but natural healing is as important in the long run as anything I can do on my own power."

Lily stood, conscious and somewhat embarrassed at the opened back of her hospital gown (_Retsu is a doctor or something, she's a professional, damn it_) and took a look at the clothing left to her. It wasn't much, really; plain white panties, a sports bra that seemed to be her size (_okay, who picked this up? Where's it from?_) ankle socks, black tennis shoes (_Nike, nice_) and black jeans that looked like they would fit a little loose around the hips. The only thing remarkable about the ensemble was the shirt. It, too, was black, a somewhat baggy t-shirt made of some kind of heavier material than she was familiar with. It was blank on the front, but on the back was a large orange emblem of a circle with a loose spiral swooping from the inside to the middle.

"I shall take my leave," Unohana said with a slight bow of her head. "If you need anything during your stay, have your grandfather give me a call. I will remain around for a few days yet, but I have responsibilities at home that cannot be put off for too much longer."

"Thank you, Retsu," Lily said. "Um, will my- shit, I still don't really know what to call him. I'm out of my league here. Will gramps be back soon?"

With a nod, Unohana said "He should be back shortly. You and he have much to discuss, and I understand that there are many answers that are owed to you. But if I may offer some advice?"

"Yes?"

"Be cautious of what questions you put to him. Knowing him, he'll tell you the truth without hesitation, but without time and context, many of those answers will do you less good than knowing the facts at face value. Start off slow, and work your way from there. Your life..." Unohana trailed off in thought for a short moment before finishing, "... it will become very complicated very soon. Make sure you are ready for that eventuality."

Lily gulped, but nodded at the woman. "Thank you, Retsu," she repeated, fidgeting with her fingers. "Um, when will Gramps- shit, I really don't know if I'm comfortable with that, when will _he _be back?"

"Knowing him?" Unohana tilted her head and smiled motherly. "Before the ramen is cold."

"Oh!" Lily turned back to look at the half-eaten cups she and Naruto had left. "Okay, right. Is it okay if I..." she trailed off, vaguely gesturing at the delicious, forbidden noodly goodness.

"Of course. I mainly said that to put the fear of Me into him. Never let him get too comfortable having his own way, he is _far _too smug for his own good at times."

Lily chuckled. "I'll remember that. Thank you, again, for everything."

Unohana Retsu nodded. "Any time, but let us not make it a frequent date. I would love to share some tea with you one of these days when our schedules allow. But for now, I have work to do." She made her withdrawal without another word, leaving Lily alone with a fresh pile of clothes, ten million questions (on the low end of a ballpark guess) and an irrational feeling that she couldn't quite place. It wasn't worry, or fear... more like, there was something staring her in the face that she couldn't quite put into thoughts or recognizable words.

It felt like she was staring at a question on a test that she had studied quite hard for that wasn't included in the lessons preceding. Somehow cheated? Motivated? Cautiously optimistic? She shook her head, no, that wasn't it.

… no. No, she recognized this one. She'd felt it long ago. She had been on a nature hike with her parents so very long ago, after her grandmother had left them. The path took a bend to a cliff on the side of the sea, and the call of the void had dragged her to the edge. With nothing beneath her for over a hundred feet but rocks, crashing waves, and dozens of feet to the seafloor below the surface, Lily had the inane urge to _leap, _to fly out into the nothingness and just let fate decide her future.

_It's the clothes, _she realized. All that black all over? The strange shirt with some kind of logo on the back? That was the precipice she was teetering over, the gift from her great-grandfather to her.

If she accepted his gift, if she let herself step into his world before he got there, she was saying that she was prepared to follow his trail wherever it could lead. But what if she didn't? What if Lily got back in bed and covered up with a hospital sheet and let him tell her what he had to say, and then they just, what? He takes her home, she sees the overbearing mother that never gave her more than a passing bit of privacy? The one who kept her home on weekends until she graduated because "An education is more important than partying all night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about"? Who wouldn't let her get a job that worked her past eight o'clock, even on weekends?

Lily had just graduated from her high school, but still had six more months to go before her eighteenth birthday. That cross-country trip in the Taurus was intended to be the big get-away bash before college began the following autumn season.

She walked over to the clothes folded up neatly on the counter, and slowly picked up the shirt. She gently traced the lines on it, making the circumference of the circle, then following it into the epicenter where it terminated. She felt as if she _knew _this symbol already, somehow. The _deja vu _was strong with this one.

_Ah, fuck it, _she thought. _I always did look good in black. _

The Void called out to Lily Uzumaki, and the Void was answered in kind.

* * *

I know this might not be that much of a first chapter, but I'd like to avoid the same mistakes that I've made with some of my other tales. This isn't going to be a "what if" story, and I think that I've dropped enough clues near the beginning to tell you where this is going. I'm gonna play this one close to the chest for now, but if any of you have any guesses you are more than welcome to make them... I might answer ya.

In the meantime, be kind to each other. The world is dark enough as it is. Make it shine. Start each day with an empty heart and fill it with love by the time you go to sleep. Go pet a dog. Eat that ice cream. Sing that song in public, because damn it, you're _fantastic. _

Dattebayo.

~DeadWitch.


	2. Chapter 2

Gonna keep this intro short and sweet. Got the itch to write again, and this is the product of that. Have had this outlined for the past couple years, but just figured now of all times was perfect to get it done. Enjoy, let me know what you think in the comments, and if I made any glaring typos or continuity errors, hit me over the head with a frying pan like ChiChi punishing Goku for letting Gohan fight in the Cell Tournament.

* * *

**_Chapter 2: The Endless Path Winds Through the Garden_**

* * *

_This world began as most others do in their infancy. Blank slate. An empty page. Where there was once barren rock floating through the endless void of space, hurtling to its own unknowing demise some several billion years ago into the void of universal heat death, life had sprung against the very odds that allowed it to exist in the beginning. Life, you see, was not meant for this realm. Oh, most of the stars had been in the same place, and one insignificant rock also floated around a medium-sized yellow sun out in the boondocks of the cosmos, but not a spec of biological life was to be found._

_Anywhere._

_And yet, miracle of miracles, it eventually came. Water crashed on shores spotted with shrubs and skittering crab. Winds howled at mountain goats huddling for warmth against the permafrost around them. Apes flung their poo at each other with innocent glee._

_And somewhere on this rock, very far away from it all, was a lonely man with a fishing rod, a line, and a shore as hard as his heart had become in recent times._

_How long this man had sat in one spot without movement was anybody's guess, but as he had not taken a visitor in nearly two decades, and strictly speaking he had no pressing issues at hand, the odds were he had been there a while._

_Eyes, barely cognizant of what lay before him, were crusted with seasalt and grime. Hair, long abused, flowed down his back, tangles of cord and twine in consistency and character. His body was as emaciated as a mummy's, and with so much dirt and other small debris littering his skin, his natural tone was anybody's guess. Were it not for the red rings around his eyes and their preternaturally golden hue, he might be mistaken for some tortured art left to the elements._

_For far too long had the Endless Path sat by the wayside._

_Those who once walked beside him would not allow his rest for much longer..._

* * *

Unohana Retsu found Naruto in a strange place as she left her patient's room, several corridors away from where she had banished him. He was sitting on the wooden floor, his knees to his chest and arms around them. He was looking up at the ceiling with half-closed eyes and a frown on his usually-jovial face. He looked up at Unohana as she approached and stood. "Hey, 'Hana," he said, with that familiar nickname that would get nearly anybody else a severe beating. "How is she? Everything all right?"

"Mm. Lily is on the way to a full recovery already. I saw no remaining issues that should need my further supervision. I do suggest that she should rest for another day or two, and if you wouldn't mind finding something resembling a fruit or vegetable that is not accompanied by your horrid noodles, that would bring me endless joy."

Naruto idly waved a hand at the sarcasm. "Fine, fine, I'll take her out for some actual food later on." He ducked his head and muttered "It's not like you complained about noodles back in the day or anything..."

Unohana sighed and hopelessly massaged her forehead to stave off the headache that cropped up when talking to her friend. Did she care for him? Yes, of course. Were they close? Since the day they had formally met. Did she occasionally dream about what his component organs might look like preserved in jars and arranged neatly on a custom-made shelf in her personal office? At least once a week.

It would be arranged with flowers, which would change depending on the season.

"Uzumaki, I respect that your favorite food is a treasure to you. Prepared by a master, it can be an exquisite dining experience and a blessing to all of the senses. However, your fetish for instant, mass-produced glorified Styrofoam borders on sexual deviancy at times, and if I did not have it on good authority that separating you from them would result in property destruction on a city-wide scale-"

"Was just that one time," Naruto mumbled.

"-then I would have done so twenty minutes ago."

Naruto cracked a smile and stood. He was taller than Unohana Retsu by over a half foot, but he knew better than to talk back to her too often. If he had to make a "Top 10 Scariest Women in the Multiverse" then she would at least be in the big 3, and she knew it. "Speaking of which," he said, very obviously changing the subject, "what's your take?" He gave a not-so-subtle nod in the general direction of Lily's room.

Unohana crossed her arms and leaned against the wall beside him. "She seems... surprisingly chipper. I cannot tell at the moment if she is in some sort of emotional shock, or if it's the trademark Uzumaki clan ability to adapt. I assume that her mother has told her some things about you before now? She is not entirely ignorant of her family tree?"

Naruto frowned. "Actually, uh... she hasn't spoken to me since Lily was three." His eyes cut to Unohana with a shade of regret. "I wasn't around much then, you see. Lily, she had just had her birthday, and all seemed well, but then the war... I didn't want to, but I had to go. My place wasn't to tell her how to raise her daughter, and... she told me to stay away. I didn't want to risk her hating me forever, and I kept hoping that one day she would reach out to me, but that day never came. People were dying, Retsu. I had to help. She... wanted normal in her life, and she couldn't do that with me around."

"That is certainly a rational thing to say," she said. "Are you sure you aren't sick?"

"And fuck you too, Retsu," he said, turning to go see his granddaughter. "I've been ostracized from her for over a decade, and I'm damn sure that whatever she knows about me she got from her grandmother in bits and pieces over the years. She's gonna have a bunch of questions and I'm not sure where I'll even be able to start, much less how much of the truth she can handle right now."

Unohana's hand fell on Naruto's shoulder. He sighed and turned to see her serious eyes gazing into his. "Start with the truth," she said evenly. "You can't lie to her, not even once. If you get into that habit now, it will be easier the more you go. Tell her the truths you can. I know you don't want her to know about everything, not yet, but if you intend to have a relationship with your great-granddaughter, you should tell her enough that she can put the pieces together on her own... eventually."

"Yeah, but will I even get the chance?" he asked. "She's still seventeen. Her mother will be absolutely fucking furious."

Unohana pointed a finger in the air. "Technically, you didn't break any rules," she said. "She called out to the Pack. You happened to respond."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, as if she'll believe that. 'Oh, hey Munchkin, funny thing happened last week, your daughter happened to be chased by a couple F5 tornadoes outside of twister season in Nebraska, came out of nowhere, and Lily just happened to know how to get in contact with me through ancient and mind-fuckery powerful magic that nobody really understands... oh hey, do I smell cookies?'"

Unohana flicked the tip of his nose, eliciting a yelp. "Sarcasm will not help you here, my friend." She cupped his cheek with a palm and forced him to look at her. "Speak from your heart. You, of all people, should know how to do that. Be cautious with what you say, and if you and she have a future together in any significant way, then be more open with your past." Her expression softened a smidge. Just a smidge. "It has been too long since your family has been together. You... you need that again."

They held that pose for a while longer than most would be comfortable with. He and Unohana had a long, complicated history with each other. Often they had been at odds in one way or another, as a matter of philosophy and morality, but by and large they had held each other in the highest esteem. The two, of all of Naruto's friends and acquaintances at this point in their lives, were probably closer to family outside of his own actual family.

Naruto closed his eyes and lowered his forehead to hers. It was a deeply intimate gesture that neither had ever allowed an outsider to witness; one could easily mistake its meaning for something else entirely. "Taichou," he whispered after some time, "Taichou, I'm fucking scared. I don't know how to do this. She, Lily, she... I'm a ghost to her. A fiction. Legend, maybe, if she knows enough from that far back. But me? I'm just the same old hyperactive knucklehead I've always been. Do I deserve to be in her life after what I did?"

Unohana palmed his other cheek, allowing Naruto to nestle and absorb her warmth. "Are you asking permission to be happy?" she said. "Of all people I know, after everything you have lost and sacrificed? I think so. It's time, Naruto. Your great-granddaughter is waiting. She's scared, too. She's lost and afraid and even if she doesn't show it, she needs guidance. The deadline is coming soon, and she needs to know her birthright. If her mother didn't tell her-"

"But it's not," Naruto interrupted. "The Uzumaki clan lives and dies with me. Every single time, I- I can't, Taichou. I can't. If I tell her my past, if I tell her what I am, what will she see? If I show her the world I've made and what it means, what will I be in her eyes?"

Unohana gently pushed Naruto's face from hers. He opened his eyes to see the woman who had been there by his side so very many times in his very long life. "She will see her great-grandfather who owes her thirteen years' worth of birthday presents and catching up. Forget about the minutia. Just go and spend time with her and let her decide for herself. Let her choices decide her future, not your past."

And just like that, Naruto felt all the tension in his body seem to lift from his shoulders. Even short talks with Unohana tended to have that effect on him. Of all the people that he had taken into his life, Unohana Retsu was the most perceptive of his soul and had a way of making complicated things as simple as bricks. He did love her, very much, and she him.

"That does leave one problem, though," he said. "Um... her mother?"

Unohana smiled again. "That, my friend, is your problem." Naruto blinked, but she was already walking away.

"Oh, come on! I could use the emotional support!"

Unohana waved a hand over her shoulder. "Get a puppy if you want emotional support, Uzumaki. I'll bandage you when she's through with you."

He stared at her retreating figure until she turned a corner, silently fuming. "Fuck you too, Retsu!" he shouted. "You're just gonna let me walk into an uncomfortable family situation without backup?!"

"That's what you get for giving my patient noodles, my dear," she called at him in her retreat. "Now, I really do have some unpleasantness to attend to, you understand. See you soon."

* * *

A sudden rap at the door made Lily's heart skip a beat. "Hey, Lily?" Naruto's voice intoned. "Can I come in?"

Some strange blend of excitement and trepidation blossomed within, but she squashed it down with several deep breaths. "Yeah, uh, come in," she replied.

The door swung inward. Naruto stood there a moment to see Lily standing there beside the bed, hospital garb discarded in favor of the clothes left behind. Save for the deliberately baggy shirt, everything looked like it fit as he thought it would. "Hey, you're up!" he said, stating the obvious. "Feeling up to getting out of here? Stretch your legs a bit?"

Lily gulped, but nodded. "Yeah. Um. Where are we going?"

Naruto's lips spread into a knowing grin. "Oh, just out," he said far too innocently. "Stroll around the garden, as it were."

"You have a garden?" she asked, the mental image of him in a wide-brimmed cap knee-deep in dirt with a trowel planting petunias coming to mind.

Naruto planted his fists on his hips in a way very reminiscent of Peter Pan. "I have several gardens."

Lily waved a hand at the door, suppressing a snort. "Lead the way, Gramps."

Naruto maturely stuck his tongue out at his descendant and blew a gloriously wet raspberry at her. "Keep calling me gramps!" he said with a laugh as Lily chased him out of the room, her fists comically pounding on his retreating back.

"You're weird," she said, massaging her hands. His back was more like a brick wall than flesh and bone. She would have done more damage to a frozen side of beef, in fact.

Naruto held a finger up. "That isn't something that I'd deny," he acknowledged. He closed the door behind her. "I've been called worse over the years."

Now in the hall, Lily looked both ways for the first time. It reminded her of a long hospital corridor, or maybe the interior of a damn near clinically clean office floor. White-walled, a ceiling made of tile, and what appeared to be marble blocks as the floor stretched several dozen meters each way. Three or four different doors identical to her own were on walls going each way, and at the end of each was a T-shaped junction leading who-knows-where. No windows were to be seen.

"Just where are we?" she asked, rubbernecking about.

"That's complicated," Naruto answered. "Simple answer would be, a combination of a medical wing, home office, and living quarters, though this isn't a permanent residence of mine. Combination of a safe house and all-purpose conference area."

Lily looked at him in alarm. "Safe house?" she squeaked. "Are we hiding from somebody? Are you hiding from somebody? Are you a criminal? Are we-"

Naruto cut her off before she could go on. "No, we're not hiding anywhere, I just wanted you someplace quiet without a commotion waking you up before you had a chance to recover." He waved a hand vaguely around them. "This is the place I bring people who need time away from what ails them, and gives them time to think. Recover. Relax. This is a sanctuary for those who have had too much of life, and need help. That's what I do these days, Lily. What I've been doing for almost a century now, in fact."

Lily gawked at him. A century. It was a word that she was familiar with, but had some difficulty processing. She knew, intellectually, that he was old, but it was hard to comprehend that this man who looked in his mid-30's at most was her great-grandfather. "Just... how old are you?" she breathed. "There's so much I don't understand right now."

Naruto placed a hand on each shoulder and smiled softly. "There's a time and place for all these questions, and I promise I'll answer you to the best of my ability. But there are some answers that you're not ready for, not yet. Every question needs appropriate context for the answer, and right now you just don't know enough to know where to begin. But you will, and soon, I promise, I'll tell you everything that I can."

"What I understand is that I was in a tornado doing a pretty good imitation of Dorothy," Lily said. "Does that make you the Wicked Witch of the West?"

Naruto laughed, shaking his head. "Nah, I'm the Good Witch Glenda," he said. He reached behind Lily to grab the doorknob of the room she had just left. "And I gotta tell you, Toto..." with a twist of the wrist, it opened. "... you ain't in Kansas no more."

The air pressure of the hall rushed through the door, dramatically billowing the two's clothing about them. Fresh air that smelled like spring assailed Lily's nostrils. Florescent lights were matched with burning sunlight falling from a bright clear sky from above. On the other side of the doorway was a grassy hilltop with a dirt path winding away through some trees about fifty yards away.

Lily walked through the door with her breath held tightly. Birds of some kind sang in the near distance; wind, the kind you get at high altitudes, the sort with the slightest edge to them, whispered at her ears. Flowers- some that she couldn't identify, but were so lovely that a funeral might be thought of as a joyous event if they were arranged properly- shared space in the grass to either side of the road. Some were grouped by species, in little beds here and there, but others had obviously migrated their seed over time, and a visual cornucopia greeted her like an old friend.

She walked forward, tentatively feeling the earth beneath her feet. This place... there was something familiar about it. This field of wonder felt more like home to Lily than any four walls ever had.

"What is this place?" Lily asked as she turned around to see Naruto closing the door. "Where are-" She stopped when she realized that he was shutting a door to a door frame that was standing alone, unsupported by any other structure, on the edge of a cliff.

"This is home," Naruto said with a smile. He walked past her, guiding her with him as he strolled. "I know you have a lot to ask me, but there will be time for all of that soon."

Lily, dumbstruck, looked over her shoulder as she walked, as if that would make a building magically appear out of thin air where it hadn't been just a few seconds ago. "That'll be the least strange thing you see all day," Naruto said without looking back himself. "Pace yourself. Do you like tea or coffee?"

"Huh? What? But- Where? How?"

"Excellent questions! I think herbal tea is called for right now."

"Oh, fuck the tea, old man! My world is being turned upside down right now and right now, I'm freaking. Where are we going? And don't you dare say something cryptic or I'll toss you off that cliff!"

Naruto turned with a huff. "I can't just tell you everything right now," he answered. "There's a lot to unpack. About me, this place. About who you, your mother, everybody in our family. Where I came from, how we got here, it's a really long story. I can tell you some of it, but you won't understand any of it without context." He extended a hand to Lily. "Please, I know we're strangers, but we're family. I... I don't have a lot of that anymore. Would you please just trust me when I say that I'll try to get around to telling you what you need to know without being a total ass about it?" He nodded his head toward the treeline behind him. "There's a cottage in there I use when I need a quiet place to talk. Let's get some tea, and we'll talk for a while."

Lily held her ground for a moment longer. "Coffee," she finally said. "I think I need the caffeine. After all, I've been in a coma for a few days and I'm kinda tweaking."

Naruto grinned. "Fine, but I hope you like hazelnut."

As cottages went, this one was nothing too special. It was constructed in a way that made Lily think of a Tolkien film; outer walls constructed of logs, caulked together with some kind of mud or basic cement, with red roof tiles to keep the elements at bay. Wide windows took up the two of the walls, green-hued sunshine streaming in through one of them as leaves high above filtered the ambiance. The inside was quite a bit more modern; while nothing to boast of, there was indeed an oven with a range, a coffeepot, and other knickknacks in the kitchen. A bookshelf crammed with various titles, a television, a small couch, and an extraordinarily plump lounge chair took up the living room. "Nice place," Lily said as she looked around. "You live here?" It was hard to believe that this was just some kind of meeting room. She could feel the life in this room. Things, _events _had taken place in this spot, she could just feel it.

"It's a place," Naruto said in that annoyingly cryptic way. "How do you take your coffee?"

"Excessively sweet," she answered. She walked over to the bookshelf and began thumbing through some of the spines. Arranged in no particular order, she recognized a lot of the authors, and even realized that she'd read several of these herself. Pratchett, King, Rowling... even Arthur C. Clark was represented. The bottom of five shelves had, of all things, an assortment of manga.

"Cream?"

"_Cream _cream or creamer cream?"

"Cream cream."

"Cream."

"You ever notice how you say a word often enough, it just stops sounding like a word and just random noise?"

He nodded sagely as he measured some coffee into a filter. "Cream." Lily snorted. "You can read if you want to," he said. "We've got all the time in the world. Pick something to take with you. Coffee won't be done for a few minutes." She blindly grabbed one of the manga and sat, or more rather sunk, into the velvet of the chair. "That's my spot," he said without turning.

"Coma!" she reminded him cheerily as she flipped it open. "Three days in a hospital bed!"

Naruto groaned. _She's my granddaughter, all right, _he mused. "Fine, but you've officially cashed out all of your Pity Party Points."

"Viva la revolution," was Lily's happy retort. She'd finished the first chapter of the book by the time he had gotten their drinks prepared, but as soon as he set the mugs on the coffee table the furniture was arranged around, she set it down on the armrest. "Thank you," she said, bringing it close to her nose. _"Mmmm, _that smells good."

"Tastes even better," Naruto promised. He settled in on the sofa kitty corner to her and crossed his legs.

Lily sipped at her cup gingerly, letting out a contented sigh as she did. "I'd say this was heaven, but I'm pretty sure I'm not dead yet. Wait." She looked at Naruto with sudden shock. "Wait, I'm not _dead, _am I? Am I?" She put the cup down and stood up. "If I'm dead and this is Heaven or something and you're a spook or angel or _whatever I am going to flip my-_"

"You're not dead!" Naruto said. "Calm down! You're alive, ,I promise!" He rubbed his face in exasperation. "Listen, calm down a bit, okay?"

"_I am calm!_" Lily said in a very not-calm tone.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Oh boy, you definitely got your temper from me."

Lily sat back down. "Very funny," she retorted. "If this isn't the afterlife, then where are we? You said we weren't in Kansas anymore, but I think you were being a little more metaphorical than you let on."

"Well... Yeah. That's one of those 'it's a long story' things, Lily." He paused to sip at his own cup, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "I suppose I should start somewhere near the beginning of my own." It was his turn to stand. He could feel Lily's eyes on his back, but he paced around the small room a bit as he drank. "Sorry if it sounds like I'm being cryptic, but I'm not really used to telling this story to people. It's not like it's a secret, but... you know how at school, there are things that you just know about some classmates without knowing really _how _you know? 'She's rich, he's an asshole, that guy goes to heavy metal concerts, she's adopted,' all that? It's just something you pick up along the way? Most people I come across in my circles, they've known about my situation for so long that I don't really have to explain things, they just kinda pick it up along the way. Having the luxury of telling it from my point of view makes the story somehow _stranger _than I remember it."

"Hrmp. Give me the short version, then," the granddaughter said. "Fill me in along the way."

"Oh, no. The short version makes me sound like a mental patient with delusions of grandeur."

Lily spread her arms. "I'm in a cottage on a hill in a garden sipping tea with my great-grandfather who looks under 30 years old. I'm here because two tornadoes clocked me into the air. I recited a poem that somehow summoned you to save me. You were glowing. This can't get any weirder."

Naruto nodded. "Point. Okay." He sat back down and looked her in the eye. "You ready? Unbridled truth isn't something most people can take in small doses."

"Born ready, apparently."

"Heh. Fine." With one more chug, he set the cup down. "Fine. Okay." He inhaled deeply, and on the exhale, spoke his piece. "I'm a super ninja. By my count, I'm just shy of seven thousand years old, not accounting for time travel fuckery. I come from a universe extraordinarily far from any place you can imagine. Every time I die, I get reincarnated into my twelve-year old self, on the same morning I set off to learn of my first mission after graduation from ninja academy. On the day I was born, a monster about a thousand years old at the time was sealed inside of me, giving me extraordinary power. Eventually, I learned how to leave my world and travel among others, and over the centuries I learned how to modify my natural powers to mimic those I came across on other planets. Most of those were versions of Earth in one way or another, but some of them were so alien that I don't have words to describe them that you have context for. To this day I have absolutely _no _fucking idea why I keep coming back when I die. One of my greatest ambitions is to end the cycle, but as long as I'm around, I do my absolute best to _stay _alive for as long as I can and get into some trouble along the way. The last time I died and revived was almost two hundred years ago, and I'm fine with that. Immortality sucks, but I learned to make the best of it. Eventually, I became powerful enough under the right circumstances that I can basically obliterate large chunks of a standard galaxy if I know what to do, which I've only had to do once, and thankfully there wasn't any sentient life in it. As far as people born mortal go, I'm in the top one percent or so of the mightiest beings alive that don't draw their power directly from some divine being or greater concept god." He took another sip of his coffee without losing eye contact. "How's that for the short version?"

Lily nearly dropped her mug. "Um. Wow. Okay. You're a crazy person."

"That goes without saying," he replied cheerily. "Doesn't make any of the above less true, though."

"You're a... a ninja?"

"Yep."

"And immortal."

"Mhmm."

"But only _kinda _immortal."

"It's a technicality, but yeah."

"Seven thousand years old."

He held up a finger. "Ah, about that," he said, "I don't count times that I've been... elsewhere. Sealed away, unconscious, locked in a pit with no escape, trapped in an inescapable dimension, all that. If I did, I'd probably have to tack on a millennia or so. And seven thousand is enough to keep track of, and even that's an estimate."

"You have... a demon? Powers?"

"_Super _powers. Top tier. I specialize in breaking things people don't want broken."

"You're a fighter?"

Naruto shrugged. "I mean, I can fight, sure. It's easier to talk to people though. You'd be surprised how often you can avoid confrontation if you engage them in conversation."

Lily blinked rapidly. "Wait, if you're... all that. If you're an immortal super demon god ninja-"

"I am _not _a god," he interjected. "The last time people tried worshiping me, it didn't end well for anybody. I'm just some guy, and I try to remember that."

She recoiled a bit at that. His body language didn't change, but she could tell that it was a sensitive subject and didn't press it. "Okay, if you're... _that... _What does that make me? Mom?" She looked at her hands, clenching them. "Am I like you? If I die, will I..."

"You'll just die," he said bluntly. "You're a seventeen-year old girl who got into an accident. I just happened to... hear your distress call."

Lily's eyes widened. "Wait! Right! That, the... poem? That spell or whatever it was, I learned that from grandma! She told me to say it if I was ever in trouble! She _knew _you'd come and save me! And the others- there was somebody else there too, maybe more. Who were they? Why'd they come with you? Are you their boss or something?"

"I'm nobody's _boss,_" Naruto insisted. "Those were friends of mine."

"But they helped because of you," she shot back.

He shrugged. "More or less, yeah."

"But why?"

"Because the Pack protects their own."

"What does that have to do... wait. Hold on." Naruto could see dots being connected in her mind, almost literally. He knew the signs; darting eyes, twitching lips, jaws shifting slightly to words spoken only in her head. "That poem. Kipling, right? 'The strength of the Pack is the... Wolf. And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.'" Cupping her hand around her mouth, she continued, "That lady, Unohana? She said she answered the 'Call' or something. I'm guessing that the word is capitalized. Same for 'Wolf' and 'Pack', right?"

Naruto nodded, but didn't answer. She was doing well piecing things together by herself, he wanted to see where she would go with this.

"She also said that you've been friends for a long time. How long?"

"Eh... a shade over seven hundred years? Something like that."

"She's scary," Lily said bluntly.

"Oh, abso-fucking-_lutely_," he agreed. "Especially to those who don't adhere to her hospital protocol."

"So, the Pack... If you're a Wolf, and so is she, and you all answered... that means there's more of you, right? Some kind of group?"

"More like an alliance than anything," Naruto answered. "It's a lot to explain in few words, but the long and short of it is that it's more like living magic. Imagine a _force _that could be adopted under different guises. An ancient, incredibly powerful magic that spans across time and space. Nobody alive today, to my knowledge, is aware of where it comes from or who created it, if anybody did at all. It's a passive force, but those who it 'accepts' into it can call on aid in times of need to anybody else who the Pack acknowledges. That poem from Jungle Book, it's kind of like a key to access it. You aren't pack yourself- you're more like a cub. But we all adhere to a principle that we protect our own." He shrugged. "Frankly, I could have handled the disaster you were in on my own, but the fact that your familial bond with me is so strong that it didn't just reach me, but six others from six separate universes, whole different planes of reality, goes to show how eager it was to keep you alive."

"This is crazy," she said softly.

"Crazy is as crazy does," Naruto shot back.

Lily fell silent for a few moments. "If you... if you're that strong... if you can use magic, what does that really make me? Can I do what you..." Wait. Hold on. "Mom. _She _can do what you do too, can't she?"

Naruto kept his face neutral while carefully considering his words. "To a lesser extent, yes," he said. "She's far younger than I am, but if we're comparing her current ability to mine when I was her age- in my first run-around of life before I started playing Groundhog Day- she's about equal. Maybe stronger."

"Then... why didn't I know about it? Why didn't anybody tell me any of this?"

Naruto leaned forward and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "She wanted you to live a normal life," he said. "Kino went through a lot with her own mother- my daughter, your grandmother- and didn't want to put you through the same life she lead. I'm sorry that she did that, but it wasn't our right to decide how she raised her own children. The last time I saw you was a _very _bad time in her life, and mine. You deserved better than that. I..." He sighed and hung his head, withdrawing his hand. "There was a lot of fighting. There was a war. Your mom helped a little bit, but she was so worried about you being caught in the crossfire that she decided that her priority was keeping you safe. I couldn't do anything but respect that decision, even if I disagreed with it."

"Is that why Grandma doesn't come around very much?" Lily asked.

He shrugged again. "Less that and more that she's off doing her own thing. She might be nearing sixty years old, but Uzumaki blood is strong, especially in her. Her biology, her power, it combines to physically retard her age after a certain point. All folks in our bloodline share this trait to one extent or another. I've taken certain steps to prolong my natural lifespan, which might sound vain from somebody who'll just come back to life anyway, but there are good reasons for it that I don't want to get into right now. That said, you, her, everybody in my family could live to seventy or eighty years old without appearing to age past their mid-thirties or so."

"Where is she?"

"Last I checked, couple years ago, she was playing Pokemon professionally on some world out there. No idea where she is now."

Lily snorted in disbelief. "You're fucking with me."

"No, I swear!" Naruto said with a laugh. "She got bored of fighting and decided she wanted to relax for a while. I think she's in love with this dude named Wolfe- no relation to the Pack, he's this nerd who's big in the scene."

"You've _got to be fucking with me_," Lily insisted.

"I'm not saying I _understand _it either," Naruto admitted.

Lily looked around the room in thought for a moment. "So- this place. Is it where you come from? Your... home?"

"Well... no and yes. I live here, but didn't come from here. More like, I found an empty universe with nothing in it and set up shop."

"Huh?"

"Another long story," Naruto said.

"I hate it when you say that," Lily grumbled. "You love being mysterious, don't you?"

"It's like a drug," he admitted. "I can't get enough of the intrigue."

Lily finished her coffee in deep thought. Naruto could tell that there were still many things that she wanted to ask him, but she had no idea where to begin anymore. She seemed to settle with "The things you do- the, what? Power? Magic? Can you teach me?"

"I wish I could," he said. "I really do. But your mother would kill me if I did it right now. Especially since you're still recovering. She... doesn't like me much these days, you know. She would probably forgive me bringing you here, but if I started teach you the family trade, it would make things bad for us in the long run. I don't have too much family left... I don't want to break the one I still have just by being impulsive."

"What'll she do, ground me?" Lily joked.

"No," Naruto said. "She'd try to kill _me. _I try to avoid dying as a general rule."

"Very funny."

"He's quite serious," a voice from the other side of the front door chimed in, startling Lily.

Naruto stood to swing it open, revealing Unohana. "Hey, Retsu," he said in greeting. "Didn't expect to see you so soon. What gives?"

"I apologize for the interruption," she said, "but I thought you might want to know that her mother is on the way here right now."

He froze in place. Lily could see his entire body stiffen. "Ah. Um. Oh. That's... bad."

Unohana, unfazed, smiled at him. "Oh, yes. In fact, she's climbing the mountain right now. On foot. Slowly. One step at a time."

Naruto gulped. "Eh. Oh. Thanks for the warning. Um, you might want to get out of here before the fireworks start. This could be trouble."

"Leave? You jest," Unohana said. Naruto could feel that quiet brand of schadenfreude his friend was so well known for, and it sent chills down his spine. She reached into her robes and withdrew a buttery-smelling paper bag. "I already prepared the popcorn. I'll sit off to the side and watch. Don't worry, I'll be sure to patch you up before you die." She put a hand on Naruto's slightly-trembling shoulder. "Good luck." With that short interlude of adorable family bonding, she about-faced and closed the door behind her.

Naruto stood in stunned silence for some time. Lily could tell that, for whatever reason, he was as surprised as she was. "Hey? Um. Grandpa? Are you going to be okay? Is she going to be _that _mad at you over all this?"

He let out a shaky breath. "It might be best that you stay in here when she arrives," he said. "She might not actually kill me, but she knows how much I love my garden. There's a good chance she'll start there and work her way to me."

"She wouldn't do that!" Lily protested. "How vindictive could she get? You saved my life, right?"

"Heh. Ha. Yeah. I did..."

"But?"

"..._but _I didn't tell her you were here three days ago. I, uh, hoped that she might not figure out by the time I took you home tomorrow."

Lily blinked. "Ooooohhhhh. So we're both dead."

"Maaaayybe. If I hurry, I might be able to stop-" A muffled explosion in the middle distance interrupted his train of thought, the floor below vibrating in protest.

"That's not a good sign," Lily whispered.

_Please, don't let that be the roses. _

* * *

Well, that was quite a bit of infodump. If you're interested in sticking around for the long haul, I've got plans to include quite a bit of backstory here, including several chapters at a time of stories of different times in Naruto's life.

In case you were wondering if this sounded somewhat familiar, and if you're caught up with a story written by Third Fang called "Yet Again With a Little Extra Help" then this does indeed exist in the same universe as his story. He gave me permission several years ago, but I haven't quite had the energy or motivation since then to jot anything down. I'm not going to use anything specific from his stories except the concept of Presence, but even that won't play too much a part of this tale, though some of his OCs might get name dropped here and there.

I hope everybody is staying safe during this viral pandemic. Stay healthy, wash your damn hands, and eat right.

Dattebayo.

~DeadWitch


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